Crossroads by Wendy Saunders Read Free Book Online Page A

silly grin on your face, it’s nearly five past and you’ve not locked the doors yet.’
    ‘Yes dear,’ he smiled softly at her with infinite patience, ‘I was just about to.’
    ‘Well get on with it,’ she stood with one hand fisted on her hip and the other tucking the cash drawer under her arm. ‘I’d like to get home some time tonight.’
    He shuffled over to her, dropping the empty boxes by her feet. He leaned towards her as she watched him with wary eyes and dropped a sweet kiss on her cheek.
    ‘I love you Eunie,’ he smiled, ‘I don’t think I’ve said that to you often enough.’
    ‘Have you been drinking?’ her eyes narrowed suspiciously.
    ‘No,’ he replied in amusement.
    ‘Then what are you after, trying to soften me up?’
    ‘Nothing,’ he chuckled.
    ‘Well,’ her lips pursed speculatively, ‘you’d better get on with it then.’
    He watched her as she turned abruptly and headed towards the back where the office was located. Suddenly she stopped, hesitated and turned back towards him slowly.
    ‘I love you too,’ she added, a faint blush staining her cheeks under layers of pressed powder.
    He smiled as she disappeared into the back room; maybe it was time to start thinking about selling up after all. The soft tinkle of the bell shook him from his thoughts and still smiling he turned towards the door.
    ‘I’m sorry we’re closing…’
    His voice trailed off and the smile fell from his face as he watched the tall figure of a man enter. He was uncommonly tall, must’ve been nearly seven feet in height. He was immaculately dressed in a crisp white shirt and black waistcoat and trousers. His heavy black overcoat was so long it hung to his lower calves, and his silver hair was almost completely concealed by a large wide-brimmed black hat. His skin was papery and heavily lined with age, his cheeks hollow and his mouth a thin tight line but it was his eyes which caused Jonathan Bailey’s own to widen in shock. The stranger’s eyes were completely black, with no whites at all. But it wasn’t just that they were black, Jonathan found himself staring, inexplicably drawn into those shiny orbs, unable to move or even gasp in fear. The blackness seemed to go on endlessly, vast and all encompassing, a soulless void of nothingness.
    He couldn’t move. Caught like an insect in a web, his mouth fell open and yet no sound emerged. His eyes widened in fear but he could not close them to shut out the vast inevitable pit he was being sucked down into. He vaguely registered the stranger’s palm pressing against his chest, the abnormally long elegant fingers sinking into his skin as if he were no more than a shadow. There was no blood, no wound but he suddenly felt a shocking tear, as if something precious had been ripped from him. The color drained from his eyes taking them from a merry twinkling brown to the pale colorless cream of a serpent. His lips, still open in a silent scream of stunned agony, held a faint blue stain as his skin turned grey. Then he felt nothing but a shocking emptiness and crushing cold, his body falling backwards in slow motion. He could see it somehow, as if he were suddenly watching from a different vantage point and when it hit the ground he felt nothing.
    The stranger withdrew his clenched fist from the discarded body, his long tapered fingers wrapped around a small ball of pure white light which pulsed brightly in his palm. His other hand dipped into the folds of his heavy overcoat and withdrew a small clear glass bottle. He tipped the light into the bottle and pressed a stopper into the neck as if to prevent the strange ball of light from escaping. He shook the bottle a couple of times, seemingly satisfied when it shone even brighter. Tucking the bottle into his breast pocket he turned back to the door, disappearing into the street in a tiny tinkle of bells.
     
    Olivia crossed Main St lost in thought. She settled the weight of her backpack more comfortably on her back